Interview with Gary Rodriguez, author of Escape Through the Wilderness

My name is
Gary Rodriguez, and I live in California. I'm the president of LeaderMetrix
Inc., a consulting company that specializes in senior-level executive coaching,
organizational development, and conflict resolution.

Previously,
I worked for eighteen years in the radio business as an executive where I spent
several years as one of the original managers of Infinity Broadcasting.

Following
a successful radio career I became the president of a non-profit organization
for a season.

As a young
man, I spent a tour of duty in the U.S. Army where I was recognized as the
youngest Drill Instructor in the Army's history at age 18 years. I was also
awarded the Silver Star (the nation's third highest award for valor) while
serving in a combat zone.

Over the
past few years, I've written three non-fiction books and then I decided to
write a novel.

My first
book, Purpose-Centered Public Speaking,
was published in 2009 and was re-published this summer (2014). Then I wrote a
companion workbook designed to help people implement the principles taught in
my first book. Next, I wrote Overcoming
The Fear Of Public Speaking. And this past year, I wrote my first novel, Escape
Through The Wilderness.

Sixteen-year-old Savannah Evans
walks with a slight limp thanks to a gymnastics’ accident that dashed her
Olympic dreams, but didn’t stop her from attending an adventure camp in Idaho.
At Camp

Arrowhead,
she quickly befriends Jade Chang and Rico Cruz, but Conner Swift taunts Savi
because of her injury.

When the four are teamed
together for an overnight white-water river rafting adventure, Savi refuses to
get in the same raft with Conner. Unfortunately, the director will not reassign
her.

A fun expedition down the river
turns into a nightmare when their raft slams into a huge rock and their adult
guide disappears down the river.

Without their guide and
desperately trying to steer an out-of-control raft, they pass the “last chance”
marker and enter the larger rapids. With Jade pinned between the raft and a
rock, and Rico clinging to a lifeline, Savi must cut the raft free.

When the four drag themselves
out of the river, they’re bruised, beaten, lost, and twenty-five miles from
camp. Because of late-night campfire tales of Vexel, a vicious animal that roams
the nearby woods, Savi and the others are terrified.

Savi becomes the unlikely leader
who tries to guide the group back to Camp
Arrowhead. Limited supplies,
injuries, and the constant threat of Vexel—who Savi fears is stalking them,
complicate the harrowing return trip.

Readers will enjoy dramatic
survival scenes and the group working together, solving problems, and learning
to overcome adversity.

Q: Welcome to The Writer's
Life!Now that your book has been
published, we’d love to find out more about the process.Can we begin by having you take us at the
beginning?Where did you come up with
the idea to write your book?

The book Escape Through the Wilderness was birthed out of my passion to
teach young emerging leaders principles related to life and leadership.

My unique background and
credentials include a season in the U.S. Army where I was the youngest drill
sergeant in the Army’s history at age 18 (Pentagon confirmed), a jungle expert
(trained in the Panama Canal Zone), and recipient of the
Silver Star (the nations third highest award for courage under fire).

Escape Through the Wilderness gave me a distinctive opportunity to
write to today’s youth about leadership and teach key principles in the context
of a wilderness survival adventure.

Q: How hard was it to write a
book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make
the journey easier for other writers?

Honestly, writing the book was
fairly easy for me. My confidence in writing was piqued by the fact that I have
experience in survival, the wilderness, white-water rafting, hunting, fishing,
hiking, evasion, and navigating the wild. All these are woven into this
thrilling survival story.

Q: Who is your publisher and how
did you find them or did you self-publish?

In the past, I’ve self-published
three books on public speaking. This time I decided to use a publisher for my
first novel. I went with Tate Publishing on the recommendation of another
author.

Q: Is there anything that
surprised you about getting your first book published?

The length of time between
submitting the manuscript and distribution was excruciatingly long. I hoped the
process would be more streamlined but working with a publisher is very involved
and time consuming.

Q: What other books (if any) are
you working on and when will they be published?

Currently, I’m in the process of
writing the sequel to Escape Through the
Wilderness. So far it’s going well and I’m about a third of the way to
completion. It is very important to me that it has at least the same level of
intensity as the first book and so far it does.

My hope is to have the sequel
released by summer 2016.

Q: What’s your favorite place to
hang out online?

Candidly, I don’t think I can
narrow it to one. I love writer’s sites like, The Writer’s Life, Book Daily,
and various News sites. I also spend time on Twitter and Pinterest.

Q: Finally, what message (if any)
are you trying to get across with your book?

Here’s how another writer
described the message from my book:

Masterfully crafted by Gary
Rodriguez, Escape Through the Wilderness
tells the gripping story of four teenagers whose rafting accident forces them
to fight for their survival and defy all odds to come out alive. Taking the
book’s premise directly from his own military experiences, Rodriguez
constructed the narrative to turn young readers into admirable leaders and
explore issues related to faith, abuse and forgiveness.

Q: Thank you again for this
interview!Do you have any final words?

Our schools are filled with young emerging leaders looking
for insight and guidance related to leadership. Learning leadership principles
can be boring but it doesn’t have to be. My hope is that Escape Through the Wilderness, its sequel, and other books like
this can fan the flame of leadership in today’s youth.